Father Thomas Nairn OFM

Biography

Fr. Tom is the Senior Director of Ethics at the Catholic Health Association, U.S.A. Prior to this appointment he served as the Erica and Harry John Family Professor of Catholic Ethics at Catholic Theological Union and Director of its Health Care Mission Leadership Program. He taught there for 28 years. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School and has also taught at St. Bonaventure University in Olean, New York; Yara Theological Union in Melbourne, Australia; St. Paul Divinity School of St. Thomas University in St. Paul, Minnesota: and Holy Trinity College in Harare, Zimbabwe. He has lectured or given workshops in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Papua-New Guinea, Singapore, South Africa, Trinidad, and Zimbabwe.

He has served on the editorial board of the journal Human Development and is currently on the editorial board of Health Care Ethics USA. He was ethics consultant for the Conference of Major Superiors of Men /Leadership Conference of Women Religious Task Force on Health Care for Religious. At the request of the Minister General of the Franciscan Order, he conducted the canonical visitations of the Franciscan provinces in South Africa (1993-94), East Africa (1997) and Australia/New Zealand (2007).

He has published many articles both on medical ethics and other ethical issues which have appeared in such journals Health Progress, New Theology Review, The Annual of the Society of Christian Ethics, The Journal of Lutheran Ethics, the American Medical Association’s online journal Virtual Mentor, and the anthology On Moral Medicine. He also has published articles in more popular journals such as U.S. Catholic, St. Anthony’s Messenger, and Liguorian. He has edited The Seamless Garment: Writings on the Consistent Ethic of Life (Orbis Books, 2008), which won a 2009 Catholic Book Award from the Catholic Press Association, and The Consistent Ethic of Life: Assessing its Reception and Relevance (Orbis Books, 2008).